


that day, we saw the same star but had a different ending.

by orphan_account



Category: Howl no Ugoku Shiro | Howl's Moving Castle, 신의 탑 | Tower of God
Genre: Angst, M/M, Mentions of Blood, a bit of fluff in between but the ending is sad, bam is sophie, follows only a bit of the actual plot, khun is howl, rak is markl
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-17
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-02 21:13:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24233377
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: howl'smovingcastle!au where khun is a wizard, and bam is cursed by the witch of the waste.
Relationships: Khun Aguero Agnis/Twenty-Fifth Baam | Jyu Viole Grace
Comments: 10
Kudos: 102





	that day, we saw the same star but had a different ending.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [argenteas](https://archiveofourown.org/users/argenteas/gifts).



> although the plot follows some parts of the movie, i changed some things up simply because it'll get too draggy if i included everything.

The first time Bam meets Khun, he finds himself cornered at the alleyway prior, by two soldiers on patrol whilst on the way to his best friend’s workshop.

He’s flustered, the two men towering over him as the blonde bends down for a closer look at his face, chuckling, “This little mouse seems lost,” to his comrade.

A warning goes off in Bam’s head, telling him that this situation he’d found himself in was far from safe, but before he’s able to say or do anything the blonde soldier continues, voice suggestive, “This little mouse seems thirsty, should we take him for a cup of tea?”

“Pretty cute for a mouse,” the brunette grins, sinister, and Bam knows immediately that he must run.

“How old are you anyway? Live around here?” The first soldier presses on, leaning in closer to his face.

Bam panics, and though voice wavering, he manages to shout out a “Leave me alone!”, somewhat a desperate attempt to get himself out. 

He prays it worked, but it seems his prayers fell short.

“You see, your moustache scares all the cute ones,” the blonde sniggers, unfazed.

“I think he’s even cuter when he’s scared,” his friend laughs, and the alarm bells in Bam’s head are going off at full volume now- he must run, get out of here, but fear keeps him rooted, eyes widening when the soldiers lean in closer and closer and-

“There you are sweetheart, sorry I'm late,” a voice, low but silky smooth, murmurs into his ear. Bam isn’t sure when this person had shown up but it might be because he’d been too caught up in his panic.

There’s a warm hand on Bam’s shoulder, a presence beside him, holding him close protectively, and he doesn’t know why but he feels somewhat safe, safer now at least, that he allows himself to sink into the hold.

“Hey, we’re busy here,” the blonde soldier snaps, annoyance evident in his voice at the interruption.

“Are you really?” The man by Bam’s side questions, a light taunt in his voice. Lifting a finger from the hand on Bam’s shoulder, he flicks it gently, out of sight of Bam, and Bam sees the 2 soldiers salute suddenly.

_What?_

“It looks to me like the two of you were just leaving,” he continues, and Bam thinks he can hear a smirk in the man’s voice. But nevermind that, the soldiers march past Bam at an amazing speed down the alleyway from where he came from, yelling protests, and Bam finds himself alone with his saviour.

“Where to?” He hums, deep voice resonating through his chest, “I’ll be your escort this evening.”

Bam finally looks up at the face of the man who’d just saved him, and he almost gasps. Said man is ethereal, blue hair framing his face, fringe falling over his gentle eyes, kind smile on his face.

“Uhm,” Bam starts, “I’m going to the workshop of swords to find my friend,” he says.

The man nods, gives another small smile, and utters in a low but calm voice, “don’t panic sweetheart, but I’m afraid I’m being followed.”

He pulls Bam’s arm gently and locks it under his, immediately walking off, fast. Bam becomes increasingly aware of the sickly feeling in the pit of his stomach of being watched over, of being followed, but he doesn’t have time to slow down and turn around to see the sight behind him. All he hears is the sound of an ickish squishing sound, almost like slime, as the man almost drags him down the alleyway.

Bam struggles to barely keep up with his pace, but he senses urgency in the man’s footsteps, and the looming sounds of something like a liquid getting closer and closer, so he doesn’t complain, and only walks faster. 

“Sorry,” the man by his side murmurs, “looks like you’re involved.”

Bam gasps when he sees black shadows emerge from the walls around them, forming legs from black liquid and bodies taking shape. He has no clue what these abominations are, and he doesn’t have time to think about them anyway, when the taller male is simply dragging him down the alleyway to what he hopes is safety.

“This way!” He orders, protective arm around Bam’s tightening as he pulls him to the left down another alleyway, but Bam is panicking, because he can hear the strange creatures closer now behind them, yet they’ve also emerged from the wall in front of him for as far as he can and they’re on the verge of running straight into them, no exit in sight.

“Hold on,” the familiar voice murmurs, husky in his ear, and Bam feels him sling an arm around his waist, pulling him tight, and then suddenly, they’re off the ground with a leap, air rushing through his slacks and throwing him off balance.

_Wait, am I flying?_ He wonders, dazed but sure he’s definitely floating, stomach flipping as he hovers midair clumsily.

The arm around his waist tightens and Bam can feel his body stabilising, but when he gazes downwards he sees that the townspeople are becoming smaller and smaller with each passing second, and he comes to some kind of dumbfounded realisation that _yes, they are indeed midair, and this might just be a big fat dream._

The grip around his waist loosens a bit, and he feels warm but rough hands grasp at his.

“Now, straighten your legs and start walking,” the same voice he’d been hearing the past few minutes commands, and Bam does it, awkwardly straightening his knees and trying to pretend he’s walking on the ground. If everything is this weird, this messy, then he might as well try to pretend and act this out, whilst keeping his fingers crossed that he doesn’t somehow die.

He does it successfully, he soon realises. The grip on his hands don’t loosen, but he’s pacing through the air like he’s walking as per normal, and Bam thinks he might just survive this.

“See, not so hard, is it?” The man, _his saviour, the magician, the wizard, whatever he’s called, Bam doesn’t really care anymore,_ says, a tilt in his voice.

Bam huffs as a reply, to which the man gives a chuckle and praises, “It’d seem you’re a natural at this.”

Like hell I am, Bam wants to say, but he’d somehow lost the ability to speak in this Very Freaky setting, so he shuts his mouth and keeps walking, praying for this to end.

And end it does. They land on a balcony, Bam’s legs almost giving way underneath him when he feels actual ground beneath. 

The man with gorgeous blue hair lets go of his hand, and balancing on the railing of the balcony, instructs him to wait a bit before going back outside while he draws them off.

In a daze from everything that has happened thus far, which, from the way his legs are aching confirms is not a dream, Bam mutters an, “okay.” It’s all he’s capable of as of now.

“That’s my sweetheart,” the man smirks, affection evident in his voice, before he leans back and falls off the railing, cape fluttering in the wind after him.

“Hmm- Ha- Huh?!” is all Bam sputters as he drags himself to the railings and looks off the direction where the man had fallen, but all he sees is the townspeople bustling about, blue hair long gone with the wind.

-

Bam manages to somehow convince himself that the fateful meeting had been a dream. After all, whilst he’d heard rumours from his family about how witches and wizards exist, but far beyond the safety of the little town deep in the fields of green, he’d never seen them himself and it just wasn’t possible, in the first place, for a human to be walking in the air. 

That’d been what he’d thought.

But now Bam is sitting on a chair in the living room of the castle, The Moving Castle to be exact, with his back aching, skin taut, hair grey and body a few decades past his age, and he isn’t sure what he thinks of anymore. 

In the span of 2 days, he’d found his body turned from a 22 year old to a 62 year old by, what he can only assume to be, the Witch of the Waste. She’d shown up in their hatter shop, a little boutique by the corner of town, and Bam had told her to leave for it had been long past closing time.

Angered at his disrespect, she’d flown at him in a rage, and he'd had his eyes close, but she'd promptly disappeared into thin air. It’s not when he’d woken up the next day, back creaking, hands wrinkled and hair grey, that he’d realised he’d been cursed. He almost didn’t recognise himself, skin sagging, lips chapped, eyes dull and tired. The sight of himself in the reflection had thrown him off, before the sinking realisation that he’d pissed off, of all people, the Witch of the Waste, and now he had no choice but to live with it, set in.

He’d been horrified at first, nervous shaking of his hands and gnawing away at his lips, but he’d quickly come to decide that if he had to be old and ugly then so be it. The world still went on, and there was no time to waste if he’d wanted to find a way to break the curse.

Bam had promptly set off after that, grabbing a few essentials with him. He’d known that there was no way he could stay in the house with his family when he’d been cursed to the depths of hell by a witch and with the way he looked, he knew, even more so that no one would believe him when he claims to be himself.

So he’d set off to find a new home, a new place to belong to, and now he finds himself here, warming his feet by the fire, nodding off from the comfort.

He’d heard rumours his whole life about the Moving Castle, about how the wizard who stayed here, Khun Aguero Agnis, was a man to be feared for he’d prey on young kids and eat up their hearts. No matter to him, Bam had decided when he finally made his way in, he’s old and ugly and he’s sure the wizard won’t spare him a look anyway.

“Woah, that’s some nasty curse you got there,” a little voice says, rousing Bam from his nap.

“It’s gonna take a lot of work if you want it off you,” it continues, and Bam’s eyelids flutter open to find the source, only to see two eyes peering at him shyly from within the fire.

“A talking fire,” he deadpans, no longer surprised from everything that he’d gone through himself for the past 2 days.

“I’m not just a talking fire!” it claims indignantly, “I’m a demon, and a veeeery powerful one at that, and I’m called Calcifer” it supplies, pride in its voice.

“If you’re a demon, can you break the curse on me?” Bam murmurs, voice still full of sleep.

The fire stops talking, and tilts its face, studying Bam.

“Hmm…” it hesitates, pondering, “if you make a deal with me, and break the spell I’m under, then I’ll break your curse,” it provides.

Bam hums contently, sleepily, eyes threatening to flutter shut again. 

“Okay,” he agrees, and drifts off, snuggled in the scarf around his neck.

-

When Bam wakes the next day, it’s to the doorbell ringing and loud footsteps thudding down the stairs from the floor above, brought about by the appearance of a tiny crocodile.

“Who are you, grey turtle?” He gruffs as he runs past to the work table at the corner of the room, grabbing a cloak and pulling it over himself. Immediately, the crocodile takes the form of of an old man instead, grey beard covering the lower half of his face as he stumbles down the steps to the door.

There, he twists the handle, and Bam sees the colour dial hanging just above going from green to blue. The crocodile pulls the door open to tend to what looks like customers to Bam, and the smell of fish and the sea waft in. 

Bam realises he’s no longer Market Chipping, his hometown, for there would be no way he could smell the sea from there. In awe, he gets up to stand from his position, wincing from the ache having slept in such a stiff position the whole night, and stumbles to the windows.

He’s right, when the first thing that he sees is the sea, spanning across the viewline for as far as he can see. 

“This castle can move around…?” he croaks, voice rough from having not used it all night.

“Well, duh,” Calcifer interjects, “The dials by the door lead to different places, and I’m moving the whole damn thing by myself,” he complains, annoyed.

At this, Bam is truly in awe. He turns back to the fire demon, eyes glinting. 

“You’re incredible,” Bam breathes.

The fire demon blinks, and its eyes widen. 

“You think I’m incredible…?” It asks, proud. It's slightly fizzing, sparks flying everywhere, and Bam sees the demon go from a searing red to a hot pink, cackling “he likes my fire!!”, seemingly on the verge of erupting. 

“Calcifer,” a low, gentle voice calls out. Calcifer immediately fizzles out and returns to normal.

Bam had been so caught up with staring at the fire demon that he’d failed to notice the front door open and close at some point, someone having entered.

“Blue turtle!” The crocodile greets, short legs running to meet his master by the top of the staircase.

“Rak,” said master greets back, patting his head gently.

“Master Khun,” Calcifer greets, slightly sulking from how he’d doused his fire. 

Bam turns to gaze at the figure by the stairs, and feels his heart skip a beat.

Icy, blue hair, cool blue eyes. Bam would recognise him from anywhere. That man from the alleyway, his saviour.

“And who’s this?” Khun asks teasingly, a glint in his eyes.

“Uhm,” Bam stutters, wanting to say something like _you know me, you called me sweetheart,_ but decides against it upon realising that this version of him was but an older, duller version. He reckons Khun would just laugh it off if he tries. 

“I’m Viole,” he lies instead, “and I’m here to kindle your fire and to clean the castle,” praying Khun doesn’t see through him at all.

“Oh?” Khun chuckles, “who hired you?”

“C-calcifer!” Bam stammers, quickly looking at the fire demon who’s now scowling at him for such a blatant obvious lie.

But if Khun knows it’s a lie, he doesn’t show it, simply nodding and heading to the stairs instead to go to his room.

Bam watches him go, heart strings tugging sadly that he hadn't recognised him, but halfway up the steps Khun stops and turns to look at him. 

“I look forward to working with you,” he smiles gently, before he’s climbing the stairs again and disappearing out of view.

-

On Khun’s instructions, Rak teaches Bam all there is to know about the castle. The castle is powered constantly by Calcifer, which they have to ensure is given enough logs for consumption just so it doesn’t go out. 

“If he goes out,” Rak had said, “then something very terrible will happen.” Bam doesn’t really want to know what it is, so he agrees to it, and makes sure that he leaves sufficient logs each night by the fire hearth before going to bed.

Rak also teaches him about the door, explaining that each colour would led to a different place in the country, all planned out by Khun. They’d usually use any of the three- green, red, or blue,- to get to wherever the customers were, but they’d been told very explicitly by Khun to not go anywhere near the black dial. Since the crocodile had emphasised this fact twice, Bam made sure to remember it by heart.

He’s quick to settle in, fast to adapt to the cleaning job he once pretended he had but now actually does, and he easily becomes friends with both Calcifer and Rak, where the latter calls him by an endearing name of “grey turtle”.

His relationship with Khun is not that far off as well. He’d first expect Khun to be as scary and menacing as the rumours had put him to be, eating hearts as steak for dinner and drinking children’s blood for wine. Yet, Bam has seen none of that.

Instead, Khun eats whatever he eats and drinks whatever he drinks as well, and has been nothing but kind. He’d given Bam a bed to sleep in next to Calcifer, concerned about the condition of his back, and even some new clothes, and so Bam has decided after the span of 2 weeks that Khun might be the nicest wizard he’s ever met.

In fact, he’d caught Khun looking at him across the dinner table multiple times, thinking that Bam didn’t notice, but Bam always does, for the look Khun gives him is one he doesn’t think he has ever received before. It’s a look of adoration, of pure bliss, and although he doesn’t understand why, Bam thinks that he may even be able to come to like this kind wizard very much.

-

When the next month comes, however, Bam realises with a start that Khun stays out later, sometimes even for days. Although he’d tried to stay up to wait for him on multiple nights, he finds himself falling asleep first. Those nights, though, Bam dreams of soft, gentle fingers carding through his hair, and a voice telling him he’d “save him for sure, don’t worry”. When he wakes, it’s to the sound of the bathwater running, a sign that Khun is home in the wee hours of the morning.

But he then proceeds to lock himself in his room for days, barely even coming out for meals after those long nights, and Bam feels a nagging voice in his head each time that he chooses to ignore.

He’d tried asking both Calcifer and Rak about it, but they’d both shaken their heads sadly and given the same answer, “Master Khun is fighting a losing battle, and when the Witch of the Waste finds us again, we will move once more, and everything will start over again.”

Bam doesn’t understand why anyone would bother fighting a battle if they knew they were losing. He reckons it’s because Khun has something he wants to protect, but he doesn’t dare to ask him if it’s really worth the pain.

-

The next morning, things seem to go back to normal. Khun meets them at the dining table as he’d been doing previously, an easy smile on his face as he dishes out breakfast, but there’s something unsettling about the smile that doesn’t really reach his eyes and the hollowness in those orbs that has Bam suddenly not feeling as hungry anymore. 

He reckons he’s right when even Calcifer and Rak are silent of their usual bickering. But as per usual, Bam doesn’t ask. He keeps his mouth shut even when the air is thick with tension, even as he sees Khun sit there with a plastered smile, eating with pretentious grace, telling himself it’s because he’s but a mere cleaner in the castle incapable of questioning its inhabitants, and not because he’s afraid of the answer that he will hear.

Khun puts down his utensils on the table, deliberately slow, as he locks his hands together and places them under his chin.

“So,” he starts, and Bam can’t help but think that he hasn’t heard the voice in so long, “we’re moving the castle today,” he says, authority clear and leaving no room for questioning. An order, not a suggestion.

There’s silence, which is an uncommon sight in their usually boisterous household, and Bam feels tension so thick he swears he can slice through it with the butter knife in his hand.

“Blue turtle, have you ever thought about finding another way out instead?” Rak’s voice is quiet, something Bam has never heard before.

The smile on Khun’s face slips off, and his eyes are piercing, glaring.

“I think I’ve already told you countless times why I have to win,” he states calmly, but Rak clearly isn’t having any of it when he bumps a fist onto the table, plate clattering.

“But blue turtle, your bod-” he pleads, but Khun is hissing “shut up” so venomously that Bam can almost feel his blood frost over.

“Shut up.” Khun orders, “we said we’d never talk about it again.”

Bam feels uncomfortable, bitterness swirling in his stomach having witnessed the two fight in front of him for the first time. He opens his mouth in an attempt to ask what’s going on, but Khun sends a pleading look in his direction, gaze broken and cutting through him, and Bam swallows the anxiety down his throat noisily.

-

He finds out why, though, soon enough. After the transfer of locations had been made and the castle moved, Rak and Calcifer helping out unwillingly, Bam finds himself in awe at first. The interior of the castle had shifted together with the location, the living room expanding, becoming brighter as the old paint on the wall was stripped down and covered with a new coat instead. He sees more rooms added as well, a hallway appearing out of thin air leading from the living room toward newer rooms on the first floor. It’s a magical process, and Bam is speechless at having witnessed it.

“Khun-” he turns toward the wizard, wanting to ask him how he’d done it, but he hears Rak shout instead, and sees it, before his mind can comprehend it, Khun falling to the floor on his knees, Rak scrambling to his side, as Khun doubles over and coughs, hard.

When Bam sees the dark red liquid that splatters all over the floor, dripping through Khun’s hands that he’d covered his mouth with, there’s a haunting feeling that this is what he’d been so afraid of asking all along, and it’d finally come true.

-

“... So,” Bam mumbles, head down, “you’re telling me that everytime Khun moves the castle, it eats up his lifespan?”

Rak lets out a sound that tells him he’s right.

“And,” he continues, “you’re telling me it’s because the Witch of the Waste is after him for something he did a long time ago, and he continues to fight, despite knowing he cannot win?”

“Yes grey turtle,” Rak affirms sadly, “the witch’s minions are far too many for Khun to defeat by himself, even if he’s given a whole life to.”

“Then why?” Bam asks, voice cracking, “why wouldn’t he just run away instead of hurting himself time and again like this?”

Rak shakes his head at that, downcast. “He tells us he has something he has to protect with his life.”

-

That night, Bam falls asleep by Khun’s bedside, ignoring the fact that lying on his arms all hunched over would most definitely give him, this body, a back ache the next day. Khun had been still the whole afternoon, eyes closed and breathing softly, and Bam wanted to be the first one there when he woke.

When moonlight filtered through Khun’s window but the wizard remained asleep, face pale and tired, Bam had almost been scared. Khun looked so pale, almost see-through, that Bam thinks he might just disappear for good. 

Swallowed by this new anxiety, Bam decides he’d sleep in his room too, so he snuggles into his arms, bent over right beside Khun to keep him safe as he sleeps, emotionally exhausted from the day.

Under the moonlight, Bam’s skin glows, wrinkles easing out of his face and body thinner, looking everything like the boy he had been supposed to be.

-

Bam wakes to Khun sitting up on his bed, looking much better than the day before, as though he hadn’t just been spewing blood everywhere with a lifespan reduced. 

“Khun,” he greets, rubbing groggy eyes, relief flooding over him, “how are you feeling?”

Khun smiles, kind, soft, not the smile he’d seen yesterday, and Bam feels tension leaving his body. 

“Better,” he whispers, “thank you for being here.”

Then, “can you come somewhere with me?” 

Bam wants to say no because Khun is still sick, but the look in Khun’s eyes is tender, and there's a warm hand on his wrist, fingers rubbing circles, and Bam ends up saying yes.

-

The place that Khun brings him too when he turns the doorknob to the black dial is not what Bam had expected. When he walks through the door, he’s greeted immediately by wildflowers, a gentle wind caressing his hair, and the smell of greenery. 

Bam feels at ease, the grass soft beneath his feet and the sky limitless, and he can’t help the smile that spreads over his face. He feels like he’d gone back to being 22 all over again.

“Do you like it Viole?” Khun asks softly, as if almost afraid to break something between them.

“I love it,” Bam grins, turning back to look at Khun.

Khun sees the young male in front of him, and his heart clenches painfully. Time is not on his side.

“Khun…?” Bam mumbles, when he sees the crestfallen look that has crossed over the wizard’s face. 

The wizard doesn’t say anything, and only gazes at him so tenderly, so lovingly, and Bam feels like he will break.

“Khun,” he asks, voice pleading, “are you leaving me?”

Khun gives him a sad smile that Bam cannot decipher. 

Bam opens his mouth, but hesitates, afraid of asking, again.

_But if I never ask then he might really just disappear in front of my very eyes._

“Khun,” he begs, “please tell me what’s wrong. I know I can be of help to you, although I’m not beautiful, and all I’m good at is cleaning,” he says, voice cracking, desperate.

“No Bam,” Khun replies, desperate and sounding hurt, “Bam, you’re beautiful!”

Bam shakes his head absently, _I’m no match for your beauty, have never been_ , and Khun watches, anguish in his heart as Bam returns to his cursed form.

There’s a blaring horn that sounds through the air that has Khun snapping his gaze up immediately, cursing when he sees one of the witch’s warships sailing through the sky. She’d been faster and more accurate this time, and Khun doesn’t know if he’ll be able to protect both him and Bam in his current state.

“Bam,” Khun rasps, “Bam, listen to me.”

Bam strains his neck to look up, eyes wrinkled and old.

“I want you to go back to the castle, and turn the damned dial. Tell Calcifer to run the castle 300 miles to the West, and fast,” he orders.

“N-no,” Bam stutters, “but you-”

“There’s no time,” Khun says, voice softening, hands coming to cradle Bam’s face gingerly, “I promise I’ll come back for you.”

There’s a nagging feeling in Bam’s chest but he ignores it, choosing to trust and believe in Khun’s words instead. He hobbles off, joints aching as he makes his way back. He bursts through the door just as he feels the first bomb drop onto the garden behind him, the castle shaking on impact. 

Bam shuts the door, and forcefully turns the knob. The castle shakes for a while, and then the sounds of destruction stop. Bam slumps against the door, sliding to the ground.

“Grey turtle!” Rak yells from the top of the staircase, “are you hurt?”

“No,” Bam pants out, “no, but tell Calcifer to run the castle 300 miles to the West, and fast.”

Rak nods and runs off, and a few seconds later Bam feels the castle moving at a faster pace, further away from danger, but also further away from Khun.

-

Bam stays up all night, chewing on his lower lip anxiously and hobbling about the room incessantly. It’s been 5hours since the bombing and Khun still wasn’t back yet.

“Calcifer,” Bam murmurs tiredly, stopping his pacing, “will you tell me why the witch is after your master?”

Calcifer burns at the sound of his name, logs cackling, eyes appearing.

“I will,” it says, “but only if you promise to free Master Khun for good.”

-

When Khun finally comes home that night, Bam is curled up on the floor, a blanket over him, snoring softly. 

Calcifer peeks out from beneath the log at the sound of the door opening, and the sight of Khun has him bristle. “Master Khun, you’ve gone too far today.”

Khun’s arms are covered in spikes, blood dripping from where he’s been pierced. His wings flutter softly, tucked behind his back, leaving dirty blood-stained feathers everywhere as he trudges in. But it’s not the physical sight of Khun that has Calcifer worried, it’s the way Khun’s eyes are staring blankly at him, empty and hollow, almost gone.

For a moment, Calcifer thinks he might really have lost him, but when Khun sees Bam lying on the floor, body back to his original age, he bends down to run a gentle finger through his brown locks and Calcifer is almost relieved, despite being a demon.

“Master…” Calcifer mumbles, and then pauses, “I told him why the witch is after you,” Khun doesn’t reply, now carding a hand through Bam’s hair, “and I told him to find a way to save you.”

Khun freezes, hand in mid-air. Calcifer winces. It knew it wasn’t a terrific idea, but he has no idea how else to save him.

“Y-you,” Khun grits, speech slobbering from having used too much energy to transform.

“I’m sorry,” the demon finds itself apologising, “but my end of the contract remains my priority.”

Khun understands, of course he does. He’d been the idiot to have made that contract all those years ago anyway, so who could he really blame? All it boiled down was to his greed, and now that he realises its consequences, all he can do is attempt to change things before it got too late. But he’s not so sure if he has the chance to, anymore.

He takes one last glance at Bam’s sleeping face, and trudges up the stairs, gritting his teeth in pain. Blood spills incessantly from his wounds and trickles down the steps.

-

That night, Bam dreams. He sees Khun’s jet black wings, a receding figure from him, stumbling through the tunnels, clearly injured. 

“Khun!” He’d called out, but to no avail. The wizard edged forward even faster despite his wounds. 

The stench of metal is in the air, and Bam is running, young again, feet thudding against the ground as he follows after Khun.

When he finally finds Khun at the end of the tunnel, it’s dark and musty and reeking with the stench of blood.

“Khun,” he murmurs softly, reaching a hand out blindly to touch him. He feels feathers, and the figure recoiling.

“It’s too late,” Khun grits, angry and sad and sounding so terribly lonely, “you’ve come too late and now you cannot save me.”

And then there’s a bright light and he’s disappearing, and Bam has to shield his eyes, but he remembers screaming, “I’ll save you, Khun! I’ll save you because I love you!”

Bam jolts awake, tears on his cheeks. He sits up slowly, and notices that his body aches seem to be a lot better these days. He sniffs, and uses a hand to wipe off the tears.

“Calcifer,” he calls, “is Khun back?”

The fire demon pokes his head out of the hearth and nods, eyeing at the dirt and blood Khun had left behind just a few hours back.

“I told him I’d informed you of why the witch is after him and that you should probably find a way to help him but I didn’t tell him I’d already taught you how,” Calcifer says guiltily, and Bam nods. As bad as he feels, he knows this isn’t something Khun should know. It's something both he and Calcifer had agreed on.

Bam shuffles to his feet, nightmare still raw in his mind. He has to go see Khun, and right now.

Juggling a mug of hot milk with honey, he climbs the stairs warily, avoiding the blood stains, and finds himself at Khun’s front door. He nods once, twice, and when he doesn’t hear any reply, he pushes the door open and walks in.

“Khun,” he greets, said male lying on the bed facing the ceiling, eyes glassy. If he hears him, Khun doesn’t make any movement to acknowledge it.

“Khun,” Bam tries again, “I made you some hot milk, you should drink up.”

He places the tray on Khun’s bedside table, and, when still seeing no reaction from Khun, turns to leave. He’s stopped by a hand gripping his wrist.

“Viole,” he says, voice cracking, and Bam stills, “I’m sorry.”

“10 years ago, I’d done something terrible. I wanted power so I did the unthinkable, no-,” Khun corrects himself, “I did many unthinkable things. I cannot say what they are because I’m cursed to holding my silence, but…” Khun trails off, exhaling. 

Bam feels his heart pounding against his chest. He’d heard this story from Calcifer once, somewhat, but hearing it come from Khun feels a few times worse.

“... but the consequences will come in the form of losing you,” his voice cracks, and Bam can tell he’s crying, “I’ve been looking for you, ever since that day when I knew you’d come for me, so please, don’t try to save me,” he begs.

The grip on Bam’s wrist is tight, crushing, pleading, almost afraid of letting go, but Bam pushes it off with his other hand gently and turns to face Khun. He’s been crying, tears decorating his porcelain skin, blue eyes wet, and Bam thinks that the wizard in front of him, whom everyone had come to fear in town, was really nothing but a small boy after all.

And he will do anything to protect said boy. 

So he forces a smile onto his face and looks at Khun, unwavering, but heart breaking, and he lies, “I won’t.”

-

When it finally happens, it’s a few days after that. Rak and Bam were forcing Calcifer to stay still just so they could make banana bread using his fire, and Calcifer was hissing, angry, spitting sparks at them. Khun watches with an amused smirk on his lips from the corner of the room, but eyes really only falling on one person. 

He doesn’t know if Bam has noticed by now, but he’s almost back to normal. Khun had been working on lifting his curse, bit by bit, and progress had been made in the past 3 months. Bam now looks almost like his age, albeit probably a bit older.

The past few days had been insanely peaceful, but he knows that all of them can tell that the peace won’t last, not when the Witch of the Waste is still out there for his neck. So Khun had taken the chance to enjoy every last peaceful moment that he’d had with them, the stories shared at dinner tables, the lingering touches between he and Bam, and the forehead kisses he’d give him each night when he was sure he was asleep.

When the Witch of the Waste finally finds him again, there’s an earth-shattering clamour and the castle jerks, Bam and Rak letting out yells as they slip onto the floor. The castle is shaking, and he can hear the sound of bombs falling around them, getting closer and closer with each fallen bomb. 

It seems the Witch of the Waste will kill him this time at all costs.

“Calcifer!” Khun calls, authoritative, and Bam sees the dial by the door spin to red from the previous blue. The ground is still shaking, but not as much as it had been before.

Khun stands up and walks toward Bam, who’s now dusted himself off and is facing the wizard directly.

“Bam,” Khun whispers, hand coming to cup his cheek, stroking it lightly, “I have to go.”

Bam chews the inside of his cheek. _No,_ he wants to say, _it is I who has to go._

“Will you be back?” Bam asks, a familiar heat starting to burn at his eyes. He knows the answer is yes, but also knows he won’t be around to see it.

“I promise,” Khun breathes, and leans down to press a chaste kiss on his forehead.

When he pulls away, Bam’s eyes are wet. _I’m sorry,_ he wants to scream, _I’m sorry I lied._

The moment Khun’s figure disappears through the door, Bam lets the tears he’d been holding back fall.

“Calcifer, Rak,” he says shakily, “let’s do it.”

Convincing Rak had been easy. The crocodile may be loud and noisy, but he’s very perceptive and catches the way Calcifer and Bam throw looks at each other. Not one to be kept in the dark, he’d demanded to know.

When Bam tells him they’re opening a portal in the castle in order to go back in time to save Khun before the start of it all, Rak agrees, for he too was sick and tired of seeing his blue turtle in pain all the time. 

What Calcifer and Bam don't say, of course, is that Bam was going to die. 

And he was going to die in the past.

-

Grabbing the chalk off the desk together with the spell book, Bam flips it open frantically, despite already having gone through the book so many times, sigil he’s supposed to draw now a burned image in his mind. 

With a shaky hand, he exhales, and presses the chalk against the floor as he begins to draw the sigil. He’s done in no time, but seeing the sigil across the living room floor is a reminder to him that there’s no going back from here, and that’s enough to make him nervous.

He takes a deep breath anyway, because he knows that doing this is the only way to save Khun, is the only way to break him from his contract, his curse, and Bam knows damn well by now that he’ll do anything for him. 

Stepping into the circle, Bam takes one last look around the living room, around the castle, around the home he’d come to treasure and the people in it. 

He shuts his eyes and takes in a shaky breath, give me strength, and mutters the incantation according to the book.

There’s a bright flash of light as the words leave his mouth, searing his eyelids red, and Bam hears something almost like a vacuum before he’s thrown out, stumbling, eyes flying open just as he lands on all fours in an open plain.

He doesn’t know where he is, but he guesses it’s where the contract between Calcifer and Khun had first been made. Calcifer wasn’t allowed to tell him the details of how the contract was made, but he’d told him to “go back and stop it all before it happened.”

Bam picks himself up, dusting the grass off his pants, as he looks around. It’s sometime around dusk, the sky hues of pink and purple as the sun sets, and Bam can’t help but feel that it’s about to happen soon and so he must hurry.

He runs by pure instinct, pushing past taller grasses toward the direction of the sunset, looking around frantically for any sign of Khun or Calcifer.

And then he sees it. A shooting star that flies across the night sky. It’s bright, leaving streaks of colours across as it zooms past, and Bam’s breath hitches in his throat. It’s breathtaking, magical, but also so terribly sad that this would be his last view of the world.

“Calcifer,” he’d ask, the moment Calcifer finishes on how Bam can save Khun, “will I die?”

“Probably,” it’d replied, almost nonchalantly, and Bam had felt the breath in his lungs leave.

But now, staring at the night sky, stars shooting across and falling by his feet, Bam thinks that it wouldn’t be such a bad place to die after all.

He’s turning his head, taking in the view when he spots a younger boy standing a distance away from him. He’s reaching out to the falling stars, hand grasping for one of them, and something clicks in Bam’s head. 

_Khun._

Bam is running, shouting “Khun! No! Stop!” as the younger boy cradles the star in his hands, eyes blank. He’s murmuring to the star, and Bam knows that it’ll be all over if he doesn’t stop him here.

“Aguero!” He shouts, voice pleading, “Don’t!”

At this, the boy looks up, eyes open in surprise. The star in his hands jumps around restlessly, colourful sparks flying everywhere.

“Khun,” Bam pants, as he catches up to the boy, placing a hand on his wrist while he catches his breath.

“Don’t do it,” Bam begs, and Khun is looking at him questioningly, eyebrows raised.

“Why?” He asks, slightly appalled by the appearance of a random stranger, but still cold and curt.

“Because,” Bam pauses, not really sure how to explain, “because… you’ll end up hurting someone who loves you very much instead,” is what he says instead, softly.

The boy blinks, and tells Bam, “but it’ll give me power. I want to be strong.”

Bam smiles, heart wrenching painfully in his chest. “But you will be.”

“How do you know?”

_Because you’ll go on living without me for the rest of your life._

“Because I’ve seen you in the future,” he murmurs, voice sad and soft, eyes pricking with tears, “and you’ll become the strongest person I’ve ever known.”

When Khun drops the star, Bam scrambles to get it, cradling it in his palms.

“You should go,” he tells Khun, “before it gets darker.”

Younger Khun nods, blinks, and walks off, footsteps muffled in the night by the grass.

Bam watches him go, and smiles bitterly. When he’s sure that there’s no one around, he drops to his knees, and slips out the knife from his pocket. 

It’s made of pure silver, and Calcifer had told him that if anything magic was involved and needed to be gotten rid of, then only this knife would do the job. Bam had swiped this off Khun’s desk before bed last night.

“I’m sorry, Calcifer,” he whispers to the star, feeling it burn warmly in his left palm, and brings up the blade, stabbing down hard onto the middle. The response is instantaneous- there’s a bright flash, and Bam feels the world around him burn like an inferno. He screams, bloodcurdling, for it burns his eyelids, his skin, and he thinks he might pass out from the pain.

It hurts, it stings, but he knows that this will end fast, and when it does, then Khun will never have to go through the same thing again.

He thinks he probably passes out from the pain, for when he opens his eyes again he finds himself floating in a bright circle of space, hands now empty, the pain searing, throbbing throughout his body. 

“Twenty-fifth Bam,” a woman’s voice speaks, coming in all directions around him, “do you know who I am?”

“N-no,” Bam gasps out, realising his throat was still very much burnt and sore from earlier. He wants to scream from the pain that’s coursing through him, very much feeling like it could tear his limbs apart.

“I am the Witch of the Waste,” she says, voice booming, “and you’re here for destroying Calcifer, the power I’d be given to obtain.”

“W-where’s Khun?” Bam asks instead, forcing his voice out with a cough, vision blurry.

“The silly boy? The silly boy would have eaten my star and made a contract with the demon, banished to a life of running from me forever in another time, another space.”

Bam nods, he knows, he’d been there after all. But the fact was that Khun would be safe now, and it’s all Bam can ever ask for. He feels his consciousness slipping, vision blurrier by the second and pain now somewhat a dull throb.

“But you,” she booms, “you killed my star, my demon, and for that, you must pay with your life.”

-

Bam doesn’t remember anything after that. The world around him turns black, and the pain is gone altogether. 

_In this life, Khun, I hope you get to live a life you’re proud of without ever having to run from it anymore._

**Author's Note:**

> join the worst place on earth where we literally holler at each other in chaotic screaming on twitter: @agueronight


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